Re: Discovering alternative commands

[<tomas@tuxteam.de>]

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On Thu, Jun 01, 2017 at 10:23:58AM -0500, David Wright wrote:
> On Thu 01 Jun 2017 at 09:20:08 (-0500), Richard Owlett wrote:
> > On 06/01/2017 08:14 AM, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
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> > >On Thu, Jun 01, 2017 at 07:22:36AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> > >>I'm working on a problem that requires as input an association of
> > >>disk partitions and their "label" (in gparted sense).
> > >>
> > >>I already have blkid and lsblk. They are obviously designed for
> > >>different purposes. They both _can_ supply the desired information.
> > >>Neither is ideal for me.
> > >
> > >You're always so whimsical :)
> > 
> > *ROFL* I disagree.
> 
> I agree very much.
> 
> > My questions may be weird, obtuse, or convoluted. Rarely, if ever,
> > whimsical ;)
> > What people have said about my world view for >70 yrs best left ...
> 
> The problem with whimsical is that it has two meanings. From the web,
> for ease of cut and paste,
> 
> 1.
> playfully quaint or fanciful, especially in an appealing and amusing way.
> "a whimsical sense of humor"
> 
> No, not that.
> 
> 2.
> acting or behaving in a capricious manner.
> "the whimsical arbitrariness of autocracy"
> 
> Yes, exactly that. You read people's answers and then pronounce upon
> them in accordance with your thinking, which we're not party to
> because you rarely if ever reveal it.

See? I meant it even slightly differently. From wiktionary:

  Given to whimsy; capricious; odd; peculiar; playful; light-hearted or amusing.

For me, it's something between odd, peculiar, playful and amusing.
I *know* it's some kind of emergent behaviour, and not ill-intentioned
at all. It makes (for me) interaction more difficult, but more
enriching at the same time. And somewhat joyful. So there you go.

> As an example, you wrote above:
> 
> > >>I already have blkid and lsblk. They are obviously designed for
> > >>different purposes. They both _can_ supply the desired information.
> > >>Neither is ideal for me.
> 
> with not a hint of what would be ideal.

Context. I once had a boss who functioned as Richard does. He had
a very complicated context in his mind, and when posing a question,
he offered lots of hints, but with some regularity not those his
interlocutors needed. Once I got over that I learnt that this kind
of interaction can be enriching and fun.

People are quite different, and that is a Good Thing :)

> Right. So are we meant to spend time looking for different commands
> which, importantly, must reveal must either reveal more information
> or the same information in a different way, in order that perchance
> it might be more ideal for you?

You always have the choice to throw up your hands (as I did in this
case).

[...]

> Oh, so my question above was wrong. We're expected to find _all_
> commands, regardless of whether they might be more ideal or not.

Don't take that personally. I don't think it's meant like that
(Richard: I'm taking the liberty of second-guessing you. I hope
you set me straight if I'm too wrong!).

Cheers
- -- t
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